Republic of Ingushetia | |
---|---|
Anthem: State Anthem of Ingushetia | |
Coordinates: 43°12′N45°00′E / 43.200°N 45.000°E | |
Country | Russia |
Federal district | North Caucasian |
Economic region | North Caucasus |
Capital | Magas |
Largest city | Nazran |
Government | |
• Type | People's Assembly [1] |
• Head [1] | Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov [2] |
Area | |
• Total | 3,628 km2 (1,401 sq mi) |
Population | |
• Total | 509,541 |
• Rank | 74th |
• Density | 163.16/km2 (422.6/sq mi) |
• Urban | 54.8% |
• Rural | 45.2% |
Time zone | UTC+3 (MSK [5] ) |
ISO 3166 code | RU-IN |
Vehicle registration | 06 |
Official language(s) | Ingush [6] • Russian [7] |
Website | ingushetia.ru |
Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, [8] [a] officially the Republic of Ingushetia, [b] is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; and borders the Russian republics of North Ossetia–Alania to its west and north and Chechnya to its east and northeast.
Its capital is the town of Magas, while the largest city is Nazran. At 3,600 square km, in terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's non-city federal subjects. It was established on 4 June 1992, after the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was split in two. [9] [10] The republic is home to the indigenous Ingush, a people of Nakh ancestry. As of the 2021 Census, its population was estimated to be 509,541. [4]
Largely due to the insurgency in the North Caucasus, Ingushetia remains one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia. Although the violence has died down in recent years, [11] [12] the insurgency in neighboring Chechnya had occasionally spilled into Ingushetia. According to Human Rights Watch in 2008, the republic has been destabilized by corruption, a number of high-profile crimes (including kidnapping and murder of civilians by government security forces), [13] anti-government protests, attacks on soldiers and officers, Russian military excesses and a deteriorating human rights situation. [14] [15] In spite of this, Ingushetia has the highest life expectancy in all of Russia at 80.52, beating out second-place Dagestan by almost 4 years.
The name Ingushetia (Ингушетия) derives from the Russian name of the Ingush, which in turn is derived from the ancient Ingush village Angusht, and from the Georgian suffix -éti. [16] The name in Ingush is Ghalghaaichie (Гӏалгӏайче, /ʁalʁaitʃe/). [17]
In the 1920–1930s there was not yet a unifying name for the Ingush Autonomous Oblast. Although the oblast was officially called Ingushetia, some scientists like Nikolai Yakovlev and Leonid Semyonov insisted that its correct name is Ingushiya (Ингушия). [18]
10,000–8000 BC
6000–4000 BC
4000–3000 BC
20 BC
900–1200 AD
1239 AD
1300–1400 AD
1558 AD
1562 AD
In the 18th century the Ingush were mostly pagan and Christian, with a Muslim minority. Beginning in 1588 some Chechen societies joined Russia (Shikh Okotsky ; Albir-Murza Batayev ). Russian historians claim that the Ingush volunteered to become a part of Russia. This assertion is mostly based on the document signed on 13 June 1810 by General-Major Delpotso and representatives of two Ingush clans; most other clans resisted the Russian conquest. In 1811, at the Tsar's request, Moritz von Engelhardt, a Russian envoy of German origin visited the mountainous region of Ingushetia and tried to induce the Ingush people to join Russia, promising many benefits offered by the Tsar. The representative of the Ingush people rejected the proposal with the reply: "Above my hat I see only sky". This encounter was later used by Goethe in his 1815 poem, "Freisinn" ('free spirit'). [30] [31]
On 29 June 1832, the Russian Baron Rozen reported in letter No.42 to count Chernishev that "on the 23rd of this month I exterminated eight Ghalghaj (Ingush) villages. On the 24th I exterminated nine more villages near Targim." By 12 November 1836 (letter no.560), he claimed that highlanders of Dzheirkah, Kist, and Ghalghaj had been at least temporarily subdued. [32] In 1829 Imam Shamil began a rebellion against Russia. He conquered Dagestan, Chechnya, and then attacked Ingushetia hoping to convert the Ingush people to Islam, thus gaining strategic allies. However, the Ingush defeated Imam Shamil's forces. They successfully repulsed two more attempts in 1858. Nevertheless, locked in warfare with two strong opponents and their allies, Ingush forces were eventually devastated. According to the Russian officer Fedor Tornau, who fought with the aid of Ossetian allies against the Ingush, the Ingush had no more than six hundred warriors. [33] However, the Russian conquest in Ingushetia was extremely difficult and the Russian forces began to rely more upon methods of colonization: extermination of the local population and resettlement of the area with Cossack and Ossetian loyalists.
The colonization of Ingush land by Russians and Ossetians began in the mid-19th century. The Russian General Evdokimov and Ossetian colonel Kundukhov in 'Opis no. 436' "gladly reported" that "the result of colonization of Ingush land was successful".
Renamed Ingush villages and towns: [34]
Following Imam Shamil's repeated losses by the end of the Caucasian War, the Russians and Chechens unified their forces. Former Chechen rebels and their men joined the Russian ranks. On 3 November 1858, General Evdokimov ordered (order N1896) a former rebel commander, naib Saib-Dulla Gekhinski (Saadulla Ospanov) of Chechnya to attack and destroy Ingush settlements near the Assa and Fortanga rivers: Dattikh, Meredzhi, Aseri, Shagot-Koch and others. [35] After their defeats in combat, the remaining Ingush clans resorted mostly to underground resistance. [36]
The Russians built the fortress Vladikavkaz ("ruler of the Caucasus") on the place of Ingush village of Zaur. [37] Russian General Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov wrote in a letter to the Tsar of Russia, "It would be a grave mistake for Russia to alienate such a militaristic nation as the Ingush." He suggested the separation of the Ingush and Chechens in order for Russia to win the war in the Caucasus. In another letter from General Ermolov to Lanski (dated 12 January 1827) on the impossibility of forceful Christianization of the Ingush, Yermolov wrote: "This nation, the most courageous and militaristic among all the highlanders, cannot be allowed to be alienated ..."
The last organized rebellion (the so-called "Nazran insurrection") in Ingushetia occurred in 1858 when 5,000 Ingush launched an attack against Russian forces, but lost to the latter's superior number. The rebellion signaled the end of the First Russo-Caucasian War. In the same year, the Tsar encouraged the emigration of Ingush and Chechens to Turkey and the Middle East by claiming that "Muslims need to live under Muslim rulers". His apparent motivation was to depopulate the area for the settlement of Ossetians and Cossacks. [36] Some Ingush became exiled to deserted territories in the Middle East where many of them died. The remainder were Culturally assimilated by Russification. It was estimated that eighty per cent of the Ingush had left Ingushetia for the Middle East by 1865. [38] [39]
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviets promised the Ingush that the villages and towns annexed during the colonization would be returned to the Ingush. Ingushetia became a major battleground between the old archenemies: general Denikin, and Ingush resistance fighters. In his memoirs, general Denikin wrote [40]
"Ingush people are the least numerous, most welded, and strongly martial organization. They were, in essence, the supreme arbiter of the North Caucasus. The moral of the appearance was defined long ago in Russian text-books of geography, "the chief occupation – animal husbandry and robbery ..." The last one of the two reached special art in the society. Political aspirations came from the same trend. The Ingush are mercenaries of the Soviet regime, they support it but don't let the spread of it in their province. At the same time, they tried to strike up relations with Turkey and sought the assistance from the Turks from Elisavetpol, and Germany – from Tiflis. In August, when the Cossacks and Ossetians captured Vladikavkaz, the Ingush intervened and saved the Soviet Board of Commissioners of Terek, but sacked the city and captured the state bank and mint. They robbed all the neighbors: the Cossacks and Ossetians in the name of "correcting historical errors" for a shortage of land, the Bolsheviks – in return for their services, Vladikavkaz citizens – for their helplessness, and the Kabardins – just out of habit. They were hated by everyone, and they did their "craft" in unison, well organized, in a big way, becoming the richest tribe in the Caucasus."
— Anton Denikin, Essays on the Russian Troubles (1925)
On 21 December 1917 Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed a single state called the "United Mountain Dwellers of the North Caucasus" (also known as Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus), which was recognized by Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey), Georgia, and Azerbaijan (which declared their independence from Russia in 1918) as an independent state. [41] For example, Anna Zelkina writes that in May 1918 the first country to recognize independence was Turkey: [42]
The First Congress of the North Caucasus formed a Provisional Government of the North Caucasian Free State (SeveroKavkazskoye Svobodnoye Gosudarstvo) and in May 1918 declared the establishment of the North Caucasian Republic. The only country to recognize it was Turkey.
Later Germany and others followed the recognition. According to P. Kosok: [43]
Azerbaidzhan and Armenia (May 28, 1918). All three states then concluded independent treaties with Turkey, which similarly acknowledged the independence of the Northern Caucasus and concluded a treaty of friendship with it on June 8, 1918. An exchange of diplomatic notes then took place between the head of the German Extraordinary Delegation, General von Lossov, and the North Caucasian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bammat, resulting in the de facto recognition by Germany of the independence of the Northern Caucasus.
According to the British War Office, Germans tried to establish the military base in Ingushetia: [44]
...the German Command with the object of securing the presence of German regiments within Ingush territory. The Ingushi declare that all attempts of any foreign armed force to enter into the Terek region will be regarded by the Ingushi as an attack upon themselves, and the Ingushi will oppose all their forces to such attempts.
The capital of the new state was moved to Temir-Khan-Shura (Dagestan). [45] [46] [47] The first prime minister of the state was elected Tapa Chermoyev, a Chechen prominent statesman; the second prime minister was Ingush statesman Vassan-Girey Dzhabagiev who also was the author of the Constitution of the land in 1917. In 1920 he was reelected for a third term. In 1921 Russians attacked and occupied the country and forcefully merged it with the Soviet state. The Caucasian war for independence continued and the government went into exile. [48]
Cossack General Andrei Shkuro in his book writes: [49]
Ingushetia was the most unanimous and entirely Bolshevik. Ever since the conquest of the Caucasus, the brave and freedom-loving Ingush, who were desperately defending their independence, were partly exterminated and partly driven into barren mountains. The Terek Cossacks were settled on the fertile lands that had belonged to them, and Cossacks founded their villages on the wedge that had cut into Ingushetia. Deprived of the opportunity to earn their bread in an honest way, the Ingush lived by robbery and raids on the Cossack lands. Even in peacetime, the Terek Cossacks bordering Ingush did not go to the field without rifles. Not a day went by without shooting and bloodshed. Considering the Cossacks as oppressors, and the Cossack lands were still theirs, the Ingush mercilessly took revenge on them. The relationship was created completely irreconcilable; further cohabitation was unthinkable. It was necessary either to exterminate the Ingush completely, or to evict the Cossacks from the former Ingush lands, returning those to their former owners.
The Soviets confiscated the remaining Ingush properties by collectivization and dekulakization [50] and unified Chechnya and Ingushetia into Chechen-Ingush ASSR.
During World War II Ingush youth were drafted into the Red Army. In August 1942 Nazi German forces captured half of the North Caucasus within thirty-three days moving from Rostov-On-Don to Mozdok 560 km or almost 17 km per day (see Battle of the Caucasus). From Mozdok to Malgobek same thirty three days, 20 km the German forces moved roughly 600 meters per day and were stopped only at Ordzhonikidze (modern-day Vladikavkaz) and Malgobek which were mostly populated by Ingush before the genocide of 23 February 1944. The fighting for the Malgobek was so intense that the small town was captured and recaptured four times until the Germans finally retreated.
According to the Soviet military newspaper Red Star, after receiving the news about German brutality toward civilians in Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingush people declared Jihad(Gazavat) against Germans. Stalin planned the expansion of the USSR in the south through Turkey. Muslim Chechens and Ingush could become a threat to the expansion. [51] In February 1944 near the end of World War II, NKVD units flooded the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. The maneuvers were disguised as military exercises of the southern district.
During World War II, in 1942 German forces entered the North Caucasus. For three weeks Germans captured over half of the North Caucasus. They were only stopped at two Chechen-Ingush cities: Malgobek and Ordzhonikidze (a.k.a. "Vladikavkaz") by heroic resistance of natives of Chechen-Ingush ASSR. [52] On 23 February 1944, Ingush and Chechens were falsely accused of collaborating with the Nazis, and the entire Ingush and Chechen populations were deported to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Siberia in Operation Lentil, on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, while the majority of their men were fighting on the front. The initial phase of the deportation was carried out on American-supplied Studebaker trucks specifically modified with three submachine gun-nest compartments above the deported to prevent escapes. American historian Norman Naimark writes: [53] [54] [55]
Troops assembled villagers and townspeople, loaded them onto trucks – many deportees remembered that they were Studebakers, fresh from Lend-Lease deliveries over the Iranian border – and delivered them at previously designated railheads. ...Those who could not be moved were shot. ...[A] few fighters aside, the entire Chechen and Ingush nations, 496,460 people, were deported from their homeland. [56]
The deportees were gathered on the railroad stations and during the second phase transferred to the cattle railroad carts. Up to 30% of the population perished during the journey or in the first year of the exile. The Prague Watchdog claims that "in the early years of their exile about half of the Chechens and Ingush died from hunger, cold and disease". [57] The deportation was classified by the European Parliament in 2004 as genocide. [58] After the deportation Ingush resistance against the Soviets began again. Those who escaped the deportation, including shepherds who were high in the mountains during the deportations, formed rebel groups which constantly attacked Russian forces in Ingushetia. Major rebel groups were led by Akhmed Khuchbarov, the Tsitskiev brothers, and an Ingush female sniper, Laisat Baisarova. The last one of the male Ingush rebels was killed in 1977 by the KGB officers, while Baisarova was never captured or killed. [59] American professor Johanna Nichols, who specializes in Chechen and Ingush philology, provided the theory behind the deportation: [60]
In 1944 the nationalities themselves were abolished and their lands resettled when the Chechen and Ingush, together with the Karachay-Balkar, Crimean Tatars, and other nationalities were deported en masse to Kazakhstan and Siberia, losing at least one-quarter and perhaps half of their population in transit. (The reason, never clarified, seems to have been Stalin's wish to clear all Muslims from the main invasion routes in a contemplated attack on Turkey.)
After 13 years of exile, the Ingush were allowed to return to Chechen-Ingushetia (but not to Ordzhonikidze a.k.a. "Vladikavkaz" or the Prigorodny District). Most of Ingushetia's territory had been settled by Ossetians and part of the region had been transferred to North Ossetia. The returning Ingush faced considerable animosity from the Ossetians. The Ingush were forced to buy their homes back from the Ossetians and Russians. These hardships and injustices led to a peaceful Ingush protest in Grozny on 16 January 1973, which was crushed by Soviet troops [61] In 1989, the Ingush were officially rehabilitated along with other peoples that had been subjected to repressions. [62]
In 1991, when the Chechens declared independence from the Soviet Union to form the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the Ingush chose to secede from the Chechen-Ingush Republic. This was confirmed with the referendum and in 1992 the Ingush joined the newly created Russian Federation to try to resolve the conflict with Ossetia peacefully, also in the hope that the Russians would return their land as a token of their loyalty.
However, ethnic tensions in North Ossetia which were orchestrated by Ossetian nationalists (per Helsinki Human Right Watch), led to an outbreak of violence in the Ossetian–Ingush conflict in October–November 1992, when another ethnic cleansing of the Ingush population started. [63]
Over 60,000 Ingush civilians were forced from their homes in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. [36] As a result of the conflict, pro-Russian general Ruslan Aushev, a decorated war hero from the War in Afghanistan, was appointed by the Russian government as the first president of Ingushetia to stop the spread of the conflict. Partial stability returned under his rule.
In 1994, when the First Chechen War started, the number of refugees in Ingushetia from both conflicts doubled. According to the UN, for every citizen of Ingushetia, one refugee arrived from Ossetia or Chechnya. This influx was very problematic for the economy, which collapsed after Aushev's success. The second Russo-Chechen war which started in 1999 brought more refugees (at some point there was one refugee for every Ingush citizen: 240,000 from Chechnya plus 60,000 from North Ossetia at the peak in 2000) and misery to Ingushetia. In 2001, Aushev was forced to leave his presidency and was succeeded by Murat Zyazikov, a former KGB general. The situation worsened under his rule. Many young Ingush men were abducted by Russian and Ossetian death squads. [64] [65] [66] [67] according to Human rights watchdogs Memorial [68] and Mashr. [69]
The number of rebel attacks in Ingushetia rose, especially after the number of Russian security forces was tripled. For example, according to a Russian news agency a murder of an ethnic-Russian school teacher in Ingushetia was committed by two ethnic-Russian and ethnic-Ossetian soldiers; Issa Merzhoev the Ingush Police detective who solved the crime was shot at and killed by "unknown" assailants shortly after he had identified the murderer. [70] At least four people were injured when a vehicle exploded on 24 March 2008. An upsurge in violence in these months targeted local police officers and security forces. In January 2008, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation launched a "counter-terrorism" operation in Ingushetia after receiving information that insurgents had been preparing a series of attacks. [71]
Early in August 2008, the war between Georgia and South Ossetia broke out, in which the Russian Federation subsequently became involved. [72] After the outbreak of the war, there were virtually no more attacks or abductions of Ingush civilians by "unknown" forces. Most of the Russian forces were transferred to North and South Ossetia [73] 31 August 2008 Magomed Yevloyev, the head of Ingush opposition and the owner of the website ingushetiya.ru, was killed by Russian security forces [74] Shortly before the unrecognised opposition group People's Parliament of Ingushetia Mekhk-Kkhel called for the recognition of the Russian semi-autonomous republic's independence, opposition activist Magomed Khazbiyev proclaimed, "We must ask Europe or America to separate us from Russia." [75] [76]
On 18 October 2008, a Russian military convoy came under grenade attack and machine gun fire near Nazran. Official Russian reports of the ambush, which has been blamed on local Muslim separatists, said two soldiers were killed and at least seven injured. Reports from Ingush opposition sources suggested as many as forty to fifty Russian soldiers were killed. [77] [78]
On 30 October 2008, Zyazikov was dismissed from his office (he himself claimed he resigned voluntarily). On the next day, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was nominated by Dmitry Medvedev and approved as President by the People's Assembly of Ingushetia (later the title President was renamed Head). This move was endorsed by major Russian political parties and by the Ingush opposition. [79] [80] Under the current rule of Yevkurov, Ingushetia seems much calmer, showing some semblance of the Russian government. Attacks on policemen have fallen by 40% and abductions by 80%. [81]
According to professor Johanna Nichols, in all the recorded history and reconstructable prehistory, the Ingush people have never undertaken battle except in defense. [36] In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC Pharnavaz, his son Saurmag the Iberian kings, and the relatives of Ingush people per Leonti Mroveli, received military assistance from Ingush people in defense of Iberia against the Kartli occupation. [82]
During World War I, 500 cavalrymen from an Ingush regiment of the Wild Division attacked the German Iron Division. The Russian Emperor Nicholas II, assessing the performance of the Ingush and Chechen regiments during the Brusilov breakthrough on the Russian-German front in 1915 wrote in a telegram to the Governor-General of the Tersky region Fleisher: [83]
The Ingush regiment pounced upon the German "Iron Division" like an avalanche. It was immediately supported by the Chechen regiment. The Russian history, including the history of our Preobrazhensky regiment, does not know a single instance of a horse cavalry attacking an enemy force armed with heavy artillery: 4.5 thousand killed, 3.5 thousand taken prisoner, 2.5 thousand wounded. Less than in an hour and a half the "Iron Division" ceased to exist, the division that had aroused fear in the best armies of our allies. On behalf of me, the royal court and the whole of the Russian army send our best regards to fathers, mothers, sisters, wives and brides of those brave sons of the Caucasus whose heroism paved the way for the destruction of German hordes. Russia bows low to the heroes and will never forget them. I extend my fraternal greetings, Nicholas II, August 25, 1915.
In 1994–1996 Ingush volunteers fought alongside Chechens in the First Chechen War. Aside from a few incidents (including the killings of Ingush civilians by Russian soldiers), Ingushetia was largely kept out of the war by a determined policy of non-violence pursued by President Ruslan Aushev. [36]
This changed after the beginning of the Second Chechen War, and especially since Murat Zyazikov became the second Russian appointed president of Ingushetia in 2002. The first major rebel attack of the conflict, in which a military convoy was destroyed occurred in May 2000 and caused the deaths of 19 soldiers. In the June 2004 Nazran raid, Chechen and Ingush rebels attacked government buildings and military bases across Ingushetia, resulting in the deaths of at least 90 Ingush people and an unknown number of Russian troops. Among them the Republic's acting interior minister Abukar Kostoyev, his deputy Zyaudin Kotiyev. In response to a sharp escalation in attacks by insurgents since the summer of 2007, [84] Moscow sent in an additional 25,000 MVD and FSB troops, tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.
Up until the dissolution of the Soviet state, Ingushetia was part of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the late 1920s – early 1930s the Soviet officials were eager to enforce the Chechen-Ingush merger as an "objective" and "natural" process. The Soviet linguist Nikolay Yakovlev, who was a supporter of the merger, suggested that an inclusive name of "Veinakh" ("our people") had to be used for both the Chechens and Ingush. According to his views, the rapid urbanization and rapprochement of the Chechens and Ingush within one and the same republic might encourage the formation of a common culture and language and the establishment of a unified "Veinakh" people.
During the late '80s, together with the separatist tendencies across the Soviet Union, the Second Congress of the Ingush People was held in Grozny on 9–10 September 1989. The gathering was directed at the top leadership of the Soviet Union, and included a request to "restore the Ingush people's autonomy within their historical borders, the Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with a capital in the right-bank part of the city of Ordzhonikidze". The Ingush Republic was to be organized out of six traditional Ingush districts (including the contested Prigorodny District). The rise of the Russian Federation - and the 1991 Chechen Revolution - gave the Ingushetians the independence they vowed for and in 1992 the remainder of Checheno-Ingushstia became thus the Republic of Ingushtia. During the 1990s, Ingushetia was ruled by its elected president Ruslan Aushev, a former Soviet general and hero of the war in Afghanistan.
The head of government and the highest executive post in Ingushetia is the Head, elected by representatives of the Parliament of Ingushetia.
Recent heads:
Recent Chairmen of the Government:
The parliament of the Republic is the People's Assembly, composed of 34 deputies elected for a four-year term. The People's Assembly is headed by the Chairman. As of 2022, the Chairman of the People's Assembly is Vladimir Slastenin.
The Constitution of Ingushetia was adopted on 27 February 1994.
Ingushetia is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
The capital was moved from Nazran to Magas in December 2002.
The most recent election was held in 2013.
Population: 509,541 (2021 Census); [110] 412,529 (2010 Census); [111] 467,294 (2002 Census). [112]
Average population (× 1000) | Live births | Deaths | Natural change | Crude birth rate (per 1000) | Crude death rate (per 1000) | Natural change (per 1000) | Total fertility rate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | 6,889 | 1,867 | 5,022 | 25.3 | 6.8 | 18.4 | ||
1996 | 5,980 | 1,958 | 4,022 | 20.9 | 6.8 | 14.0 | ||
1997 | 6,055 | 1,957 | 4,098 | 20.6 | 6.7 | 14.0 | ||
1998 | 5,929 | 2,064 | 3,865 | 19.8 | 6.9 | 12.9 | ||
1999 | 6,624 | 1,953 | 4,671 | 20.6 | 6.1 | 14.6 | ||
2000 | 8,463 | 2,117 | 6,346 | 21.5 | 5.4 | 16.2 | ||
2001 | 8,753 | 1,875 | 6,878 | 19.4 | 4.2 | 15.3 | ||
2002 | 7,578 | 1,874 | 5,704 | 16.4 | 4.1 | 12.4 | ||
2003 | 7,059 | 1,785 | 5,274 | 15.3 | 3.9 | 11.4 | ||
2004 | 6,794 | 1,751 | 5,043 | 15.0 | 3.9 | 11.1 | ||
2005 | 6,777 | 1,821 | 4,956 | 15.2 | 4.1 | 11.1 | ||
2006 | 7,391 | 1,830 | 5,561 | 16.9 | 4.2 | 12.7 | ||
2007 | 8,284 | 1,625 | 6,659 | 19.3 | 3.8 | 15.5 | ||
2008 | 9,215 | 1,561 | 7,654 | 21.8 | 3.7 | 18.1 | ||
2009 | 9,572 | 1,877 | 7,695 | 22.9 | 4.5 | 18.4 | 2.51 | |
2010 | 11,178 | 1,857 | 9,321 | 27.1 | 4.5 | 22.6 | 2.99 | |
2011 | 414 | 11,408 | 1,705 | 9,703 | 27.0 | 4.0 | 23.0 | 2.94 |
2012 | 430 | 9,350 | 1,595 | 7,755 | 21.4 | 3.7 | 17.7 | 2.27 |
2013 | 442 | 9,498 | 1,568 | 7,930 | 21.2 | 3.5 | 17.7 | 2.23 |
2014 | 453 | 9,858 | 1,586 | 8,272 | 21.5 | 3.5 | 18.0 | 2.28 |
2015 | 463 | 8,647 | 1,557 | 7,090 | 18.5 | 3.3 | 15.2 | 1.97 |
2016 | 472 | 7,750 | 1,555 | 6,195 | 16.3 | 3.3 | 13.0 | 1.75 |
2017 | 480 | 7,890 | 1,554 | 6,336 | 16.3 | 3.2 | 13.1 | 1.77 |
2018 | 488 | 8,048 | 1,548 | 6,500 | 16.3 | 3.1 | 13.2 | 1.79 |
2019 | 497 | 8,252 | 1,529 | 6,723 | 16.4 | 3.0 | 13.4 | 1.83 |
2020 | 507 | 8,463 | 1,891 | 6,572 | 16.6 | 3.7 | 12.9 | 1.85 |
2021 | 513 | 8,480 | 2,194 | 6,286 | 16.3 | 4.2 | 12.1 | 1.87 |
2022 | 7,912 | 1,727 | 6,185 | 15.0 | 3.3 | 11.7 | 1.83 | |
2023 | 7,844 | 1,705 | 6,139 | 15.0 | 3.3 | 11.7 | 1.81 |
Note: Total fertility rate 2009, 2010, 2011 source: [113]
Ingushetia has life expectancy noticeably higher than in any other federal subjects of the Russian Federation. [114] [115] In such way, Ingushetia is a Russian "blue zone". In the pre-pandemic 2019, life expectancy in Ingushetia was the same as in Switzerland, according to estimation of WHO, — 83.4 years.
2019 | 2021 | |
---|---|---|
Average: | 83.4 years | 80.5 years |
Male: | 80.0 years | 77.3 years |
Female: | 86.3 years | 83.3 years |
According to the 2021 Russian census, [4] ethnic Ingush make up 96.4% of the republic's population. The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, mostly inhabit Ingushetia. They refer to themselves as Ghalghaj (from Ingush: Ghala ('fortress' or 'town') and ghaj ('inhabitants' or 'citizens'). The Ingush speak the Ingush language, which has a very high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighboring Chechen.
Other groups include Chechens (2.5%), Russians (0.7%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. [116]
Ethnic group | 1926 Census | 1939 Census | 1959 Census | 1970 Census | 1979 Census | 1989 Census | 2002 Census | 2010 Census | 2021 Census1 | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
Ingush | 47,280 | 61.6% | 79,462 | 58.0% | 44,634 | 40.6% | 99,060 | 66.0% | 113,889 | 74.2% | 138,626 | 74.5% | 361,057 | 77.3% | 385,537 | 94.1% | 473,440 | 96.4% |
Chechens | 2,553 | 3.3% | 7,746 | 5.7% | 5,643 | 5.1% | 8,724 | 5.8% | 9,182 | 6.0% | 19,195 | 10.3% | 95,403 | 20.4% | 18,765 | 4.6% | 12,240 | 2.5% |
Russians | 24,185 | 31.5% | 43,389 | 31.7% | 51,549 | 46.9% | 37,258 | 24.8% | 26,965 | 17.6% | 24,641 | 13.2% | 5,559 | 1.2% | 3,321 | 0.8% | 3,294 | 0.7% |
Ukrainians | 1,501 | 2.0% | 1,921 | 1.4% | 1,763 | 1.6% | 1,068 | 0.7% | 687 | 0.4% | 753 | 0.4% | 189 | 0.0% | 91 | 0.0% | 34 | 0.0% |
Others | 1,215 | 1.6% | 4,549 | 3.3% | 6,438 | 5.9% | 3,978 | 2.7% | 2,852 | 1.9% | 2,781 | 1.5% | 5,086 | 1.1% | 1,918 | 0.5% | 2,129 | 0.4% |
118,404people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. [117] |
Ingushetia is one of the most religious regions of Russia. [119] The Ingush people predominantly follow the Shafi'i Madhhab of Sunni Islam [120] with strong influence from Sufism, which is often associated with one of two traditional Sufi orders: the Sufi tariqa Naqshbandi, represented in Ingushetia by the brotherhood of Deni Arsanov, and the tariqa Qadiriyyah, associated with Kunta-Haji Kishiev. [121] [122]
Ingush State University, the first institute of higher education in the history of Ingushetia, was founded in 1994 in Ordzhonikidzevskaya. [123]
Ingushetia is situated on the northern slopes of the Caucasus. Its area is reported by various sources as either 2,000 square kilometers (770 sq mi) [124] or 3,600 square kilometers (1,400 sq mi); [125] the difference in reporting is mainly due to the inclusion or exclusion of parts of Sunzhensky Districts. The republic borders North Ossetia–Alania (SW/W/NW/N), the Chechnya (NE/E/SE), and the country of Georgia (Mtskheta-Mtianeti) (southwards). The highest point is the Gora Shan [126] (4451 m).
A 150-kilometer (93 mi) stretch of the Caucasus Mountains runs through the territory of the republic.
Major rivers include:
Ingushetia is rich in marble, timber, dolomite, plaster, limestone, gravel, granite, clay, thermal medical water, rare metals, mineral water, oil (over 60 billion tons), and natural gas reserves.
Ingushetia's climate is mostly continental.
There are some natural resources in Ingushetia: mineral water in Achaluki, oil and natural gas in Malgobek, forests in Dzheirakh, metals in Galashki. The local government is considering the development of tourism; however, this is problematic due to the uneasy situation in the republic itself and the proximity of some conflict zones. However, Ingushetia continues to remain as one of Russia's poorest republics, largely due to the ongoing conflict, corruption and civil disorders. Unemployment is estimated to be around 53%, and growing poverty is a major issue. [127]
Magas is the capital town of Ingushetia, Russia. It was founded in 1995 and replaced Nazran as the capital of the republic in 2002. Due to this distinction, Magas is the smallest capital of a federal subject in Russia. In 2024, it had a population of 18,521 inhabitants, up from 5,841 in 2010 and 272 in 2002.
Nazran is the largest city in Ingushetia, Russia. It served as the republic's capital from 1991 to 2000, until it was replaced by Magas, which was built for this purpose. It is the most populous city in the republic: 122,350 (2021 Census); 93,335 (2010 Census); 125,066 (2002 Census); 18,246 (1989 Soviet census).
Ingush, historically known as Durdzuks, Gligvi and Kists, are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Republic of Ingushetia in central Caucasus, but also inhabitanting Prigorodny District and town of Vladikavkaz of modern day North-Ossetia. The Ingush are predominantly Sunni Muslims and speak the Ingush language.
Ali Musaevich Taziev, also known as Akhmed Yevloev, Magomet Yevloyev, and Emir Magas; born 19 August 1974) is the former leader of both the Ingushetia-based Ingush Jamaat and as the military wing of the Caucasus Emirate. On 30 September 2006, Taziev was appointed to the post of commander of the Caucasian Front by the orders of Dokka Umarov. In July 2007, one year after Shamil Basayev’s death, Taziev became his official successor as the most high-ranking military commander in the rebel forces. He is believed to be personally responsible for the death of several local high-ranking security officials.
When the Soviet Union existed, different governments had ruled the northern Caucasus regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Within the Mountain Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, later annexed into the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, they were known as the Chechen Autonomous Oblast and the Ingush Autonomous Oblast, which were unified on January 15, 1934, to form the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Oblast. It was elevated to an autonomous republic as the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from 1936 to 1944 and again from 1957 to 1993. Its capital was Grozny.
The East Prigorodny conflict, also referred to as the Ossetian–Ingush conflict, was an inter-ethnic conflict within the Russian Federation, in the eastern part of the Prigorodny District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, which started in 1989 and developed, in 1992, into a brief ethnic war between local Ingush and Ossetian paramilitary forces.
Magomed Khamitovich Khashiev, also known as Sokhib and Khattab, was the Ingush Emir of the Sunzhensky District and a militant in the Russian federal subjects of Ingushetia and Chechnya. He was connected with dozens of terrorist acts, including an attempt on the life of the President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov. He was also one of the masterminds behind the Beslan school attack in September 2004.
The Caucasian Front, also known as Caucasus Front or the Caucasian Mujahideen, established in May 2005 as an Islamic structural unit of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's armed forces by the decree of the fourth president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Abdul-Halim Sadulayev. In September 2006, Ali Taziev was appointed as the emir and commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front by Dokka Umarov. The group eventually reorganized as "Vilayat Nokhchicho" in 2007 and became a part of the Caucasus Emirate.
Ingushetia.org is a non-government Ingush news agency and web site and was owned by Magomed Yevloyev. Its server is located in the United States.
Magomed Yakhyаvich Yevloyev was a Russian journalist, lawyer, and businessman, and the owner of the news website Ingushetiya.ru, known for being highly critical of Murat Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia locating in the North Caucasus region. Magomed Yevloyev is not to be confused with the Ingush rebel leader Akhmed Yevloyev, who is also known as Magomed, or with the 20-year-old also named Magomed Yevloyev who is suspected of being a suicide bomber in the Domodedovo International Airport bombing.
The Insurgency in Ingushetia began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya. The conflict has been described as a civil war by local human rights activists and opposition politicians; others have referred to it as an uprising. By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the North Caucasus republics. However, by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened, and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years.
The 2009 Nazran bombing occurred on 17 August 2009, in Nazran, the largest city of the Republic of Ingushetia in the Russian Federation. A suicide car bomber attacked police headquarters, and at least 25 people were killed and 164 injured. It was the most serious terrorist attack in Ingushetia in the early 21st century, where there had been social and political unrest related to independence movements.
Maksharip Magometovich Aushev was an Ingush businessman and opposition leader in the Republic of Ingushetia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation. Aushev had taken over the opposition website, Ingushetia.org, after its owner, Magomed Yevloyev, a vocal critic of the Ingush government, was shot and killed while in police custody.
Aslan Avgazarovich Byutukayev, also known as Emir Khamzat and Abubakar, was a Chechen field commander in the Islamic State (IS) Wilayah al-Qawqaz, the commander of the Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs and a close associate of the deceased Caucasus Emirate leader Dokka Umarov. Byutukayev was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States on 13 July 2016. He was killed by Russian special operatives in January 2021.
Musa Bamatovich Keligov is a Russian politician and former vice-president of "Lukoil-International".
Barsuki is a rural locality in Nazranovsky District of the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia. It forms the municipality of the rural settlement of Barsuki as the only settlement in its composition.
Nijsxo is an unregistered political party active in the Russian republic of Ingushetia since 1988.
Ingush nationalism is the belief that the Ingush people should constitute a nation. Ingush nationalism has been variously utilised as both a secular and Islamist concept at various times, and has become particularly important since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 1992 East Prigorodny conflict with North Ossetia.
Russia's North Caucasus insurgency has gone relatively quiet, but reduced casualty numbers belie a still-worrying situation where long-standing grievances remain.
A renewed crackdown on any suspected militant activity in the run-up to the Sochi winter Olympics in 2014 and the departure of many militants to fight in Syria led to a weakening of the North Caucasus insurgency.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The conditions were so horrendous that around 25 percent of the [Ingush] deportees perished on the journey
A total of 144,704 (23.7 percent) of all deported Chechens, Ingush, Balkars (1944) and Karachai (1943) died in the period from 1944 through 1948
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